


Rage into the void

by fish_wifey



Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, aka let me fill in all the blanks for you showrunners, spoilers se2ep7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21899101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fish_wifey/pseuds/fish_wifey
Summary: He doesn’t say her name. Doesn't yell for her to come back or calm down.Magnus only runs after Franziska, to be there for her any way she needs him.
Relationships: Franziska Doppler/Magnus Nielsen
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	Rage into the void

**Author's Note:**

> I loved Dark and finished both seasons a couple of weeks ago. As soon as I started se1 I fell in love with this ship and I wrote so much??? The longer stuff isn't ready yet, so here's something small .v.b
> 
> So sad that Magnus/Franziska had such a good build-up and even an okay-ish start in se2  
> but the rest is so…lacking. Idk man it feels that we have to fill in the blanks of what you’d think would happen?
> 
> Anyway I love this ship and despite being German, I feel more comfortable writing in English~
> 
> Please enjoy!

When Franziska is mad, her aura changes. It’s this all-encompassing bright red that surrounds her, makes her an untouchable goddess. A force-field of fury. Magnus witnessed first-hand Franziska seeing red in private before and aiming her rage towards him. He looks to her parents in the wake of the door shutting with force. Knowing with pain in his heart that this was a prime example of why, one day, Franziska would be gone forever. From this town, away from her family. Possibly leaving him behind too.

Magnus breaks the awkward silence. “I’ll be back for this,” he tells Charlotte and Peter, pointing at the machine. As he takes a few steps towards the door, he turns and looks at Elisabeth. The little girl looks around until she sees him. He knows that any waving hand could be seen as ‘see ya’ in sign language, but he tries to do it correctly. Seeing her smile and replicate the sign is worth it. No one else says anything, and his feet take larger steps than Franziska did, following her path to the door.

Leaving the house, Magnus uses his longer legs and faster stride to play catch up. It’s quite easy to find where Franziska went, as he sees her strawberry blond hair float behind her. A furious wave as she walks towards the woods and out of sight. Pressing his lips together, Magnus follows her. Knowing his family is waiting. Knowing that he shouldn't have left the machine behind the way he did. Not knowing what would happen. Time seems so useless now. 

Putting aside time travel and living in the present, chasing what's the most important to him in this very moment, Magnus catches up to Franziska. He's hesitant to call out or tell her what to do, knowing she's a wild fire that will catch on trees if he's not careful. Lash out against him when he's just a body to rage against and take out her anger. If Franziska hears Magnus or wonders who the footsteps belong too, she doesn’t turn. Adamant of putting as much distance between herself and her parents. Magnus could easily overtake her, hold her, stop her. But he won’t. Keeping a few steps behind her, he walks slower, his height and foot-size enabling to walk beside Franziska as she power-walks through the woods. Stomping down the path with vengeance in her heart. 

Looking back, Magnus sees the trees slowly covering the houses on the other side. Franziska doesn’t halt, and tramples forward and away, off to nowhere.

“Hey, wait,” he says, knowing that if Franziska doesn’t want to, she won’t. When she stops, her face looks up; to the trees as she exhales a heavy breathe and holds her next. Then Franziska swirls around on him. It’s that same animosity from 5 minutes ago, and not a degree less. Magnus knows the feeling too well; he walked, ran, punched, bit into his skin trying not to yell. Resentment stays for as long as it pleases. All he can do is be a target, a person to discharge on, to take this anger if it meant she would stay and not leave (him behind). Magnus' hands lift to the side, and he offers Franziska a tiny smile. He watches her brows quiver, fury and confusion.

“You can walk as far as you want, it won’t help.”

“And what will help?” Franziska asks, unsure on her feet now as she switches her body weight from one side to the other. She didn’t snap at him. While Franziska’s words are still sharp, it’s more a knife’s spine being turned on Magnus, not the cutting edge. As if the handle of that blade was being pushed into his hand. Being the geek that she is (or pretends to be), Franziska is smart enough to know that running off into the distance won’t help. Franziska looks at him as if she knows what he means, but doesn’t want to admit to it the action of what Magnus’ words imply. The question lingers between them, and Magnus answers it. 

“Whatever you think could. I can take it,” Magnus says, ready to be a punching bag if that was what it takes to not watch Franziska implode or worse, run away. Today wouldn’t be the day. He just has to make sure. 

They stand like this for a couple of breathes Franziska takes and releases downwards, her eyes searching his hands, looking at his clothes, into nowhere. Franziska shakes her head, a bitter smile stretching the corners of her mouth up. Magnus recoils in fear she might cry, his limbs none the less ready to surround Franziska if a hug is all she needs. Franziska's eyes meet his, eyes less watery than a second ago.

“Martha called. You have to go.”

“I don’t have to do anything if I don’t want to. What I want is to be here,” Magnus says, swallowing ‘to be with you’. “To be here…for you.”

He watches as Franziska’s feet make tentative steps forward. Her eyes run from his chest to his eyes, looking for him to really mean it. Magnus offers her a tiny smile once more. His shoulders don’t square up, and he just mentally braces for whatever Franziska’s fists feel like doing. They've talked a hundred times about discharge, about losing control, about punching walls and trees and a cushion if that's what it took to deal with the shit in their lives. Franziska is close enough now, at least. Magnus rolls his shoulders back, to let his arms hover a bit behind him. Bracing his chest. Franziska's hands are tiny, but he doesn't wear as many layers as he did months ago—

(when it was cold and their family apart and the world unraveled and he fell in love)

—and Franziska starts crying instead, a sight worse than hell. Magnus’ stance doesn’t break. She lifts up her arms, her hands. Fists are form and uncurl. Her face turns red-ish, her exhales tinted with silent sobs. She looks away from him, eyes closed, shaking her head. Giving up as she releases breath and rounds her cheeks. Franziska comes closer still. She puts her arms around him, fingers curling into his t-shirt. Exhaling through his nose, feeling his heart break, Magnus puts his arms around her. One hand lays gentle on the back of her head, threading through the fire that are her locks. 

“Scream if you want to,” Magnus says, not knowing how to handle her hurt any other way but this. She shivers beneath his hands, and he feels hFranziska's mouth opening wide against his chest. He presses her tightly to him, not ‘shh’-ing her as Franziska yells into the fabric of his shirt. They stand in the middle of nowhere, forsaken by the world, by this town, by their parents. Magnus hasn’t felt as unloved by the people who created him as in the past months. But while they hadn’t talked to him much, at least they didn’t outright hide shit from him. Lying by omission was still shit behaviour, but every person had their secrets to hide.

Franziska’s yells without cursing. Sound of a hurt animal vibrate into Magnus' chest, making his soul shiver. Franziska knows not what else to do but scream into the void. Magnus could only offer his body, himself. A shoulder to cry on, a chest to scream at. A body that could take a couple of punches. He'd bare himself for her anyway she needs. Franziska takes him up on the previously vague-stated offer, but the side of her fist pummeling into his shoulder and harm aren’t hurting him. As long as it helps her, Magnus will remain standing, remain at Franziska’s side.

He knew the burden of being born first, to be an older sibling. Franziska was in the same boat, except that while her parents were still both here, and her sibling not lost, she had to face the lies every single day. When they were uncovered too late, it scorches differently.

Magnus pats her head, careful when he bows his head to hers, kissing her crown. He can’t do much else. If it would be anything but what it is, what they left behind in that house, Magnus would take her to the lake. They could smoke and have sex. They could play angry music and just curse out their parents until the sun sets. And after they could stay out late, to teach them a lesson. The world felt fucked no matter what they did, and surely they weren't that significant to it to play a larger part as it turns and turns.

Unsure if his mother would even notice him not coming home, or not caring, Magnus feels angry too. He keeps it stored inside, the knowledge that his mother would only call because of the machine. Or come to the Doppler’s home to get it without him bringing it or seeing him. She might just ask where he was instead of coming home when she told him too. And then not care where Magnus had gone off to. Putting his own silent fury aside at this scenario, he keeps taking care of Franziska. 

Until his own anger burns out, embers to throw water on later. Until Franziska's muffled screams become sobs alone. Until even her throat gives out to those and her shoulders shake beneath Magnus’ hands. Hugging her tighter, Magnus kisses her head over and over again. Unable to offer words to soothe her soul.

It takes time. Franziska’s body becomes still under his constant soothing. He doesn’t even want to calm her down that much. She has every right to be angry. Maybe his mother also knew more. Maybe—

“You should go,” Franziska says into his shirt still, pressing the side of her face against him. Her arms slink down to his lower back, less agitated. Hands less inclined to rip his shirt apart. “They’re waiting for you.”

Magnus scoffs, looking out ahead into the woods, into nothing. 

“Not for me. For the machine. I don’t even know what they want with it. We don’t know how it works all that well either,” Magnus says, and Franziska snorts at him. She laughs and it catches him too, as they shake together. Laughing despite the problems and the hurt. Laughing together. Then she recites words they’ve spoken, a slightly different version.

“We just sit and wait. Nothing happens. And we keep being lied to. Remaining clueless for the rest of our lives,” Franziska says, and Magnus thinks he can hear her cry, the last of tears falling, the last of sobs shaking out of her. Magnus' fingers brush through her hair, shorter than eight months ago. His is longer, but Franziska told him she likes it, so he keeps it without cutting. “I can’t believe we decided to tell them. And all my mom says is to stay out of it.”

Franziska shakes her head, her forehead rubbing over Magnus’ chest. Her furious energy empties out after a while, and she inhales new and replenished energy in before she looks up. Magnus can’t help but stare at her eyes, carrying every piece of evidence in how much pain the ongoing betrayal and lying causes. He wants to kiss her, to make it all stop. Franziska puts his hand on his left shoulder before he even attempts to bow down to her.

“You should go. We can meet up later. I’ll…I think I’ll be at the lake for a while,” Franziska says, staring up into Magnus eyes conveying a secret message. _Our part of the lake._ The lake Magnus first saw her in, a part of the real Franziska that no one else knew or would ever see. The very first time he worried about her, smiled at her. Saw for who she really was, stripped of everything else.

He doesn’t nod at first. Arms frozen, Magnus cannot let go either. It’s too hard to retrieve his fingers, say 'sure, alright, later' and leave. Not because she is this fanciful bird that will fly off to where he can’t reach. Magnus' soul feels assured today isn't the day she'll fly out of sight forever. Franziska doesn’t wiggle out either, as they stand still in time, the world keeps turning. Keeps on burning around them.

“Okay,” Magnus says after a while, then presses his lips to her forehead. Lingering there long enough to convey more than he can say if he’d move them. “See you later.” 

At the lake. A promise. Franziska pulls away ever so slowly, her hands moving over Magnus his ribs, her right hand lingering where his heart beats for her alone. The look they share fights time and space, conveying words without mouths needing to move. Franziska doesn't have to tell him what to say when Magnus goes back to her parental house. Silence speaks volumes, and Magnus turns, body first, head and eyes last. Moving away, he doesn't hear her footfall. He doesn't look back, as a deep sighs gathers in his throat which he won't release until later.

Crisis averted.


End file.
